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May 15, 2017

Berkeley researchers found two chemicals in anti-fertility folk medicines that block a key step in fertilization – the meeting of egg and sperm – and may make effective alternatives to today’s hormone-based contraceptives, which sometimes cause side effects.

Michael Botchan, interim dean of the Division of Biological Sciences in the College of Letters & Science at UC Berkeley, has been appointed to be permanent dean of the division. He has held the position on an interim basis since July 1, 2016.

May 11, 2017

Majoring in sociology, studying abroad, joining student clubs, even learning to salsa dance. Natalie Ruiz was eager to see how much she could pack into two years at UC Berkeley when she arrived as a transfer student in fall 2013. Then, three weeks into first semester, 21-year-old Ruiz discovered she was pregnant. “My first thought was, ‘I’m going to drop out; there’s no way I can do school pregnant and with a child,’ ” she says. “I couldn’t envision my graduation from Berkeley anymore.” But this Sunday, May 14, Ruiz, now 25, will receive her diploma from the Department of Sociology, her 3-year-old daughter, Clara, beside her. Not only will she graduate with high honors and a 3.97 GPA, but she’ll give her department’s undergraduate commencement speech.

University of California, Berkeley, neuroscientists have now combined new techniques for sequencing the RNA in single cells with detailed statistical analysis to more easily track individual stem cells in the nose, uncovering clues that someday could help restore smell to those who have lost it.

May 10, 2017

Taking advantage of a rare orbital alignment between two of Jupiter’s moons, Io and Europa, researchers have obtained an exceptionally detailed map of the largest lava lake on Io, the most volcanically active body in the solar system.

Several recent studies from UC Berkeley have rekindled the hope of curing an HIV infection by luring it out of its latent state, making treatment much more effective. The labs of Qiang Zhou and Jim Hurley, professors in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, have been leading the efforts to investigate this new approach to treating HIV.

May 4, 2017

May 4th is the Grad Slam, UC’s system-wide contest that challenges graduate students to explain their research in three jargon-free minutes. All of the first place champions from each UC campus face off to compete for the UC-wide trophy and gain the attention of industry, academic, media, and government leaders.

University of California, Berkeley, researchers have described 10 new CRISPR enzymes that, once activated, behave like Pac-Man to chew up RNA in a way that could be used as sensitive detectors of infectious viruses.

May 3, 2017

Harold Francis Weaver, a pioneer of radio astronomy who discovered the first microwave laser, or maser, in space, passed away peacefully in his Kensington, California, home on April 26 at the age of 99.

UC Berkeley is opening the P.Y. and Kinmay W. Tang Center for Silk Road Studies, the first institutionalized center in the U.S. dedicated to the study of the historical trading networks serially known as the Silk Road, thanks to a $5 million gift by two branches of the Tang family.

For more than five decades, UC Berkeley anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes has worked tirelessly to expose “uncomfortable truths” across the world. To honor her work, Berkeley’s Department of Anthropology is holding a two-day conference on May 1 and 2 called “Anthropology on the Front Lines.” Berkeley News spoke with Scheper-Hughes about the philosophy she lives and works by and the role she thinks anthropologists should play in society.

April 26, 2017

This fall, with backing from tech titan Google, Jason Okonofua, a junior psychology professor at UC Berkeley, will launch an online intervention for more than 100 U.S. school teachers to motivate them to check their biases against African American students before meting out punishment. His approach is the first of its kind.

April 25, 2017

His new book, A Most Improbable Journey: A Big History of Our Planet and Ourselves, was inspired by a course Alvarez taught for five years, until his retirement in 2011, called “Big History,” in which he approached human history from a geologic and ultimately cosmic perspective, stretching back to the universe’s origin 13.8 billion years ago. The book is his attempt to make the scientific background of big history accessible to those without a science background, specifically historians and other humanists, through personal stories.

April 24, 2017

Hubert Lederer Dreyfus, a preeminent scholar of 20th-century European philosophy, early skeptic of artificial intelligence, iTunes podcast star and UC Berkeley professor emeritus of philosophy, died at his home in Berkeley on Saturday, April 22, from cancer. He was 87.

April 21, 2017

Back in 2001, Andrew Garrett, now UC Berkeley’s linguistics department chair, had a promising student by the name of David J. Peterson in his undergraduate historical linguistics class. While Garrett was impressed and intrigued by Peterson’s penchant for inventing new languages, he lamented to himself that such interest was likely to remain a hobby rather than a career path.